


To Die by the Sword

by Rens_Knight



Series: Another Set of Eyes: A Star Wars Alternate Universe [5]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:54:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23518777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rens_Knight/pseuds/Rens_Knight
Summary: On one dark night, betrayal and lies converge to give rise to Kylo Ren and the first of his Knights.
Series: Another Set of Eyes: A Star Wars Alternate Universe [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/711291
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	To Die by the Sword

**Star Wars: "To Die by the Sword"**

**A Prompt Fic for EsmeAmelia**

**One month before...  
**

They'd been found out. Ben Solo and Keric Alsovar had, anyway...and it was all his fault for letting the trust he'd had for his fellow student Thekma Despla cloud his eyes to the idea that she'd place her loyalty to the Jedi teachings above her loyalty to own intellect, her own soul, and most of all, her own _friends._

He should have known what happens to such sentiments in the end. The Guardian in the Dark had been more than clear about such things over the years--how they could undo him. How they _had_ undone his grandfather, the man whose full legacy the galaxy and his own family had done their best to hide from him. Some part of him had still wanted to cling to the myth of the nobility of the elder Skywalker's sacrifice once he'd learned the truth in spite of everything. But what had it all come to? The outer galaxy in anarchy, and the only galaxy _he_ was allowed--this nameless, placeless Temple World--focusing all its will on keeping its denizens firmly in check instead of going out there to actually _do something_ about the chaos. _  
_

And where was the nobility in what _Thekma_ had done? Did she think this was her _noble sacrifice_ to bear, to surrender her friendship to the Jedi cause in hopes of reuniting them under a lockstep ideology once more? She hadn't even thought to talk to _him_ first, tell _him_ she was having reservations about the forbidden questions he, they, and the others had been delving into. No, she'd gone behind his back, turned his uncle--Master Skywalker; he certainly didn't _act_ like family, so he didn't deserve to be called it anymore--even _more_ against him than he already was.

Ben was not to graduate. Not to move from student to teacher, to _adult_ , as Luem Despla and Seh Braln had ahead of them, even though he had every bit the power to match the master himself. Keric had been held back as well. Some small part of Ben took comfort in the fact that at least if he was to be punished, he wasn't alone in it.

He was even _less_ alone in his disaffection than Master Skywalker, Master Despla, or Master Itayu knew.

Some of the students had done what people do when they smell an active cover-up. They, too had started asking questions. Started to realize that perhaps what Master Skywalker and Leia Organa had done to _him_ was in fact what had been done to _them_ as well. Started to realize there were stories that had never been told, theories that had never been tested.

They, too had been cast off and hidden away, their families aided and abetted by Master Skywalker. Even Itayu, the Mirialan with his adopted human son, had kept himself and his boy hidden away, leaving him here on the Temple World even when he himself would venture offworld. Keric had come to realize that truth, just as Ben had. It was a lot easier to rationalize when a galactic _hero_ told them it was all for their children's good, wasn't it? It hadn't taken much to convince Leia Organa, after all. _  
_

As for Ben's father...he'd fought it at first. He'd even fought it _after_ Ben had been sent away. But over time, he'd fought it less and less. He'd grown resigned to it. He'd _given up._ Egged along by poor reports from Master Skywalker on the state of his son's soul, of course--how _dare_ Ben resent being sent away, how _dare_ he 'talk back' to the masters, how _dare_ he think of the idea there was a galaxy outside this place. How _dare_ he be _human_... _  
_

And how dare there be even any _hint_ of something in his soul they couldn't know, couldn't contain, couldn't control. The masters and teachers didn't know what it was, of course. But the idea there could be _any_ secret from them, any unknown factor kept away from them...that, they couldn't abide. _  
_

Ben had had to be careful gathering the questioning students together. He was being watched now, 'thanks' to Thekma. He knew it. He could _feel_ it. Their entire island on the Temple World was on edge...the sense of tension and dissonance permeated throughout the place, and it was only intensifying by the day. _  
_

" _Don't you see_ ," he'd hissed in the dark that evening when every bit of him longed to shout, " _they've locked us up here like animals, for doing what's natural! We use our powers, we_ defend _ourselves, and we get sent away until we've been_ tamed _. That's what all this is really about:_ control _. Not growth. Not enlightenment._ Restraint _. Because they_ fear _us, and what we could do! Every moment we are here with them, we are being_ watched _for signs of getting too strong, wanting to know too much!  
_

" _And that right there--that is why Leia Organa herself_ lied _to all of us about my heritage, as if the truth were a poison that would spread out from me to infect everyone here! Well, there's a_ poison _all right, and it's the lies we've all been fed about the Light and the Dark Sides of the Force, which have all been about keeping us stupid and slow and_ caged!

_"Just watch. Anyone else who has questions--you'll be held back just like Alak and I have, no matter how hard you work, study, or how long you meditate on what they want you to. We'll keep on being told we're 'not ready,' and why? Because they are terrified that if they elevate one of_ us _into their ranks, they might have to bend to that little something called the_ truth _, and they won't be able to stop it! That's the way they do things--Organa, Skywalker, all of them!  
_

_"There's going to come a point when they can't hold it back any longer, and either they're going to have to let it all come crashing down and face reality, or we are going to have to make our escape and take our chances out there in the galaxy, where someone out there can find us even with all the trouble they've gone to, to keep even_ us _from knowing where we are, and will help us unlock who we_ truly _are and what we can do!"  
_

There were five of them then. Two who had heard the voice of the Guardian in the Dark directly. And one--himself--whose secret name had been bestowed upon him by the Guardian himself. The other four, he had given their own secret names that night, to make it just that little bit harder for the masters to trace the echoes of their thoughts back to them.

Alak Ren. Ysdar Ren. Koros Ren. Ylkis Ren.

And Kylo Ren.

**Deep within darkest night...**

_Terror rained down from the skies, and stabbed its way deep, deep into his innermost soul. Utter, complete, distilled panic so complete that it consumed his very being even as he loathed it for the weakness it heralded. The troops were on the move, and it was_ him _they were after. The truth didn't matter: only his blood would satisfy the rabid horde of familiar faces, whose fear and hatred radiated forth and fed the same within his own soul in a never-ending loop of reciprocity. Only when they could parade his head down the streets in a devilish celebration of victory would they think to rest. There was no reasoning. They were well beyond that now.  
_

_He ran, ran for his life--but running wasn't enough. It could_ never _be enough, especially as he sought refuge inside a great stone cavern, a cavern full of echoes and mirrors. He had no map--he had never seen this place before, but he knew. He knew enough to realize he had just made a deadly mistake. He was cornered. There was no way out, and his pursuers surely saw where he'd entered. This cavern would soon be his tomb.  
_

_The fire lit within his soul now: the forbidden fire, the only thing that could save him now. His robes swirled around him--the robes he was never supposed to wear, but he had fought for just the same--as he turned his back upon the cavern wall...it, now his only trustworthy guard from behind.  
_

_In one fluid motion he unclipped the lightsaber from his belt and ignited it. No more running. It was time to strike back. Again and again and again and again he struck but the blade simply bounced off their armor, repelled by some unknowable power...and worse,_ _it sputtered, each time more violently than the first, until finally the light died and the horde descended upon him and he screamed again and again and again, instinctive, excruciating fury--_

_\--time froze. The young man returned to himself, gasping for breath, suspended alone in the void between one precipice and the last. And the darkness_ filled _, consumed by a voice. "_ This is what the enemy desires, child. This, and many more deaths, they wish upon you."

_Rage blossomed within him. His fists tightened, nostrils flared. "To_ kill _me? You're_ sure _of this?"  
_

_Silence. Instead, image after image of death..._ his _death...swirled around him. Ice. Fire. Night and day. Fields upon fields unknown--his own hut on the Temple World...different places, different times, and possibilities, perhaps, but all of these united by one thing: his body, broken, lifeless...and young._

_"Who wants me dead?" he snarled. "Who is it?! I'll get off this rock--I'll bring them a fight...I'll do what these Jedi are too_ weak _to do!"  
_

_"_ Oh, child..." _The voice of the Guardian rumbled with something like pity. It turned his insides. "_ After all I have taught you about the nature of the universe, do you _really_ still think the battle so distant, the Light so pure? Even now the enemy plots. Even now the enemy stalks. Even now the enemy readies the blade to strike!"

_Here? Whatever 'here' was...the dreams, the vision? The Temple World itself--where his body slept...it must be under attack. Their world must be under attack...how had he not sensed it, how had he not wakened...!  
_

_"_ Confront the reality--and the path shall open before you. You shall come to me and then your true training begins!" _  
_

_Pride swelled within him. He_ had _been found strong enough--he would see his benefactor at last, seize hold of his full potential free of Jedi captivity, he would--  
_

"Hesitate _," the Guardian continued, "_ indulge sentiment, seek mercy for even an instant--and die, for the Light shall show you none. There is no other way."

_"The Light--_ " _His voice caught. His blood ran cold. This was no external threat. This was_ Jedi _. He was on the Temple World, even amidst the nightmares. For all their protestations to the contrary, someone was through listening, through talking, through trying, ready to_ put him down _like a maddened_ beast _! "Someone_ here _\--it's someone_ here-- _who--_ " _  
_

_Time was up._ "AWAKEN, KYLO REN, AND BEHOLD YOUR TRUE ENEMY!"

_He clawed, scratched his way to the surface, smashed through the walls between the realities--hoped against hope for one last second, until then--  
_

Lightning. _Lightning_. Visions of horror--an ancient and dread laughter--his eyes cracked open as he forced himself from sleep--

Lightning resolved itself to a streak of burning emerald--the heat radiating onto his face a horrid undeniable reality. A saber... _Uncle Luke's saber_...stolen? No--wielded by the Master himself.

Uncle Luke startled, saber jerked back in an instant of shock, for he hadn't counted on _this_. Hadn't counted on his flesh and blood awakening to see the truth in what Luke had meant to be his nephew's last second _._ Hadn't counted on his nephew _knowing him to be the enemy_ , the traitor, come to strike him down in his own bed like a coward...!

_No hesitation!  
_

The young man shoved through the frozen moment in time. In one fluid motion he launched himself forth, his own saber--blue--sailing into his hand and igniting...like the nightmare...but he would _not_ be cornered, he would _not_ be slaughtered like the helpless and pitiful child he had been only minutes ago. He shoved forward in the Force: the hut, Luke Skywalker, _all_ of it bursting apart with _him_ at the epicenter.

" _NO, Ben!_ " the Jedi Master shouted as if to chastise the unruly boy yet again, commanding him to stand down like a child--an _animal_ , whose job he saw as to accept the inevitable and the inhumane. He spread his arms wide as if inviting a saber to strike his own heart--

_A trap_. Not again-- _not again!_ He would _not_ meekly submit again, not with the truth lain bare and his _life_ proven endangered. Flitting images of vast skies and fields of green, of Force-flight and laughter, his uncle beardless and barely more than a youth itself--they melted away faster than they could appear. Gone. Gone. Gone _forever_ , burned away in a slash of emerald green as Skywalker parried away the first direct strike from his nephew's saber.

" _No_ , Ben!" his opponent shouted once more. "Calm down, let me--"

" _Calm DOWN?!_ Not this time, Skywalker! He warned me about you this whole time--"

"He _who_?" Skywalker hesitated for a second. The hunted man slashed at his uncle. The blade caught Luke in the tunic sleeve. The garment began to smoulder. 

He ignored the traitor. Skywalker didn't _deserve_ an answer. "He warned me but I hoped I was wrong--you want me _dead_! Admit it, that's what you want! You didn't even have an excuse...well, COME ON!" He leapt back, atop the ring of rubble that had once been his hut, threw his arms wide. "COME ON! Come and get it!"

The Jedi master hesitated. Almost seemed to _mock_ him by mirroring his own pose. "I wasn't thinking straight--I was--"

"Oh, you were thinking _plenty_ straight! Straight enough to sneak into my hut, straight enough to hide yourself in the Force to light your saber before I could even sense it, straight enough to chop my head off in my sleep if I hadn't woken up--"

"That's the Dark Side talking, Ben--it's been stalking your dreams, clouding your thinking--"

" _You spied on my dreams?!_ " _That_ was his uncle's excuse? The very nightmares he'd spent a _lifetime_ to fight, that only the Guardian in the Dark had offered any sort of real relief from? _That_ had brought this delusional fool's lethal judgment down upon his neck?

That was it. He reached out a grasping hand, lashed out in the Force, stabbed forth at his uncle's mind. "Let's see what else you _think_ you know!" He _had_ to know--he _commanded_ the Force to tell him, who else Skywalker might be plotting to kill, who else of his true friends and Knights might be in danger.

And Luke Skywalker--his eyes flared wide--he snarled, shoved his nephew out of his mind, and raised the alarm. " _Help me!_ I'm under attack! It's Ben--he's turned to the Dark Side!" 

Skywalker's cry, amplified orders of magnitude through the Force, roared indiscriminately over the island compound with a dread compulsion, stirred the entire campus to waking. The son of Solo felt their minds jolt to life, _all of them_ regardless of age or skill, all of them so sure of something to which the young man had _never even given voice_ , not even to the Guardian of the Dark, not exactly, all of them utterly unknowing of the inconvenient little detail of _just what their Master had been doing_ in the seconds before--

" _Liar!_ " Rage surged through him. Darkness-- _was_ it Darkness, to confront the worm in his deception? He heard, _barely_ with his ears, all the more so with his mind, the sound of footsteps converging. Footsteps thundering, meaning to converge upon him, to _surround_ him and to drive him towards the ocean, into the sea, his only choices the fire or the water... _NO._ This he would _not_ allow. Not here, not now, not _ever_ would he cower again like his _Master_ , afraid to do what he must except under cover of shadow and night.

_Knights of Ren!_ He thrust his own retaliatory cry into the Force, a shout targeted only at those he knew, those he _trusted_. _The bastard--Skywalker--he tried to KILL me in my sleep! It's going to be_ all _of us if we don't fight, if we don't go to the Guardian in the Dark!_ And he _willed_ them to see: not to compel them as Skywalker just had the other students, but for them to _know_ what had happened, the truth of what they were up against.

Skywalker hadn't heard it for himself, but he knew _something_ had changed, that the force he sought to array against his nephew was monolithic no more. _  
_

The younger man seized the momentum, vaulting forward with the Force, his saber ignited, snarling once again as he charged at his treacherous Master. His Knights--he couldn't let Skywalker take them all--even with the Force from which to draw their power, he had to buy them enough time to gather together and make for the ships--

And suddenly his was not the only battle joined.

It wasn't just the other Jedi, the other instructors. No, it wasn't just Skywalker now--it was the Mon Calamari Fass Despla and her Jedi daughters Luem and Thekma at her side, charging his way. Thekma...it was _her_ , _she_ was the one who'd stoked the fires of suspicion that had already taken hold in Skywalker's heart.

" _Stand down, Ben!_ " Skywalker urged, sensing the advantage in numbers. _"_ Come on, let's get you some help, let's get this Dark Force out of you--"

" _Help_ me?!" He released a sharp, acerbic bark of a laugh. " _Help_ me? Now you want to _help_ me when _you_ were the one was so sure a second ago the best _help for me_ was to put me out of my misery like a sick akk dog?"

With clawed fingers he used the Force to grasp at the rubble, hefting as many bricks into the air as he could grab all at once, accelerating them four and five at a time to as high of a speed as he could so all four of them--Skywalker, Master Despla and her daughters, had no choice but to parry the stone flechettes aside with lightsaber and Force, their advance slowed to a step at a time as he looked for some way... _any_ way...to even up the odds against him, get to a better position, _something--_

And a lightsaber whirled, violently sparking, through the air from behind him, accompanied by an animalistic snarl of rage as it sliced through the debris field and _through_ the Mon Calamari trio, illuminating the carnage for only fractions of a second as it arced back towards its owner, Keric Alsovar. No-- _Alak Ren_.

He nearly froze. The instant seemed to stretch on forever until it was shattered by Master Skywalker's howl of indignation. " _Stop this!_ " His uncle's face twisted with rage of its own, not at the one who had shed the Desplas' blood, but upon _him_. " _Ben Solo--stop this right now!_ "

With that, years of frustration--years of anguish--years of _preparation_ for this moment surged forth. His body seemed to _burn_ with it. With _more_ than just the heat of their lightsabers slashing at each other, each seeking an opening, each telling the _truth_ of what the other one really felt, all honeyed words aside. His gaze drilled into his uncle's eyes as he growled out the words. " _Do not EVER call me by THAT name again! I am_ Kylo Ren _, and I will make you_ pay _for what you have done!_ "

"Ben-- _oh Force_...!" Kylo Ren sensed it all through the power of his gaze: the icy shudder of _fear_ that ran down his uncle's spine, the moment of recognition, the moment of utter and complete _failure_ that threatened to heave its way from the depths of his stomach and out his mouth, that made even his durasteel saber hand falter, as he realized the one he had sought to mould in his own image had once and forever gone his own way.

And all around them--utter and complete chaos. The Knights of Ren--nearly _all_ of them now--they too fought amongst... _against_ their former comrades, now that they had witnessed the Jedi Master's betrayal for themselves, now that both sides drew further wellsprings of strength from the shedding of first blood. Master Skywalker no longer had to worry about Kylo alone. Now Ysdar Ren harried at him as well and he turned to face his new opponent as Kylo struggled to single out all of his Knights from the mayhem, to find _some_ way to gather them into a position where they could make a break for the ships before the remaining Jedi realized their objective.

To his utter shame, Kylo Ren felt himself start to hyperventilate until he willed himself...not to _calm_. Not to _deadness_ , never again. But to _focus_. Into utter and implacable _focus_ on what had to be done--onto _ending_ this once and for all, and beginning anew.

Alak Ren--accounted for, quickly overwhelming another opponent, this one his own adoptive father, the Mirialan master Itayu, who had dragged him here with the intent of trapping him, personally overseeing his indoctrination--

Ysdar Ren--the pale Umbaran, still entangled with Master Skywalker but holding his own--

Koros Ren--even the _young_ ones were charging against him; Skywalker's call had extended even to _them...  
_

...he tore his gaze away. Ylkis--she was unaccounted for. Where was Ylkis Ren--the young Chiss with the core name of Inerii? Had they cornered her, caught her before she even had a chance to rise against them? They had to present themselves to the Guardian in the Dark _together_ , he had to bring them through a united force, strong in their resolve and proven against this most insidious of threats. The Guardian had given him this responsibility for the Knights of Ren and he _would_ fulfill it. He could _not_ let one of his number fall.

He sought out her thread in the Force, pushed his way through the melee-- _bodies had fallen, continued to fall--he sensed it...familiar eyes lay empty on the ground_ \--and he beheld her, standing motionless, crimson eyes glowing wide, struggling to hold her face neutral but the trembling of her lip giving her away regardless. The other students--they hadn't noticed yet. They hadn't attacked _her_ \--she hadn't tipped her hand to them yet, and they hadn't noticed _him_ suddenly away from the center of it all where the other three Knights fought for all five of their lives and their freedom.

"Come on!" he hissed to Ylkis. "Come on, we _have to go!_ "

"Kylo..." Whatever it was that paralyzed her, it hadn't obscured _that_ reality from her, the fact that Master Skywalker had cut away the last veneer with his treason, that Kylo Ren no longer had reason to hide from the rest of the Temple World who he truly was. He sensed more than saw her red-orbed gaze flick across the training grounds-turned-battlefield. "I can't..."

Across the encampment, something began to glow--faint at first, then brighter and brighter.

"We won't leave you!" He yanked at her arm, felt no compliance from her. "We're going to get through this--come on, we'll all go to the ships together!"

"N-no..." Her voice emerged barely a tremulous whisper...the same he remembered from when he had first met her. When the other kids had taunted her, calling her 'Thrawn-spawn,' hurling abuse and epithets until he'd stepped in for the first time, warned them to back off or get Force-knocked back onto their butts so hard they'd wish they were dead. That had been a lifetime ago. Now... "It's not that. It's--" She waved her hand at the growing fire. The flashing of sabers. The feeling of lives, dying away one by one. " _This_. I can't do _this_. I can't be a part of it..."

" _You know_ what they'll do!" Kylo snarled. "What they just tried to do to me--they'll do it to you too! Now _come on_ , let's get to the ships!"

A tear gathered at the corner of her eye, illuminated by both the fires of her eyes themselves, and what they beheld. "This is wrong," she whispered. "This is all wrong--it wasn't supposed to be this way..."

Kylo felt it then, some sort of resolve building within the Chiss girl. He felt the will to open her mouth, to scream, to draw _them_ to him once more. He felt it-- _panic_ shot through him, and--

_No hesitation_.

His lightsaber ignited, slashed through the one who would have been Ysdar Ren, blue against blue--an instant, and that was it. Kimi'neri'iltauro was dead.

His feet backpedaled as if of their own accord. His breath came in ragged pants, the faintest of groans escaped his mouth. Then he turned, running back towards the melee, back towards his Knights. Back towards the fires, the traitor, Master Skywalker, except, except--

Where _was_ Luke Skywalker?!

"He _ran!_ " The giddy, almost drunken laughter came from his compatriot. From Alak Ren. Had Kylo Ren broadcast his thought for all to hear? No, he realized...it was _the_ question that he, their commander, would surely have asked them no matter what. "That womp rat Skywalker...he _ran!_ And you know what? I think he's _dead_ , I think it killed him--"

" _What_ killed him?" He had to know--he had to be _certain_.

" _That!_ " Alak's finger stabbed towards the Temple...no, the entire encampment, burning. 

It dawned on Kylo Ren that suddenly, not only did he no longer sense Master Skywalker...he no longer sensed the _other_ masters. And perhaps not even his former fellows, the students...

"He tried to make a run into the Temple," Alak was saying, "to grab some scrolls, some artifact, _something_...the survivors followed him, and-- _whoosh!_ " He mimed the explosion of a fireball with both hands. Perhaps it had been the combination of lightsabers and blasters, and ancient texts. Perhaps something had hit a power cell or a propane tank. Or perhaps Kylo Ren had not imagined seeing a spark leap from Alak Ren's finger at the gesture.

He had told them to fight their way to the _ships_. To get _out_. Not to--to--

For a split second, Kylo Ren imagined himself lashing out with the Force to clasp onto Alak's throat, heave him off the ground, and choking the life out of him as he snarled, _I didn't order THAT!!!  
_

But the Knights were staring at him--Alak, Ysdar, and Koros. The Knights that lived...one had not. They didn't know yet, that it had been by _his_ hand. That _he_ had been a part of this too, every bit as much as they had.

"Ylkis didn't make it," he snapped, forcing all the emotion out of his voice as he issued his first true orders to the Knights of Ren. "She chose Skywalker. You three--get to the first ship and jump to the hyperspace coordinates the Guardian provided. I will cover you to _ensure_ no one is left to challenge you. Once I verify Skywalker is dead, I will take the second ship and join you. Then we will call the Guardian, and our _true_ training will begin." 

For a second, the three Knights continued to stare. Then Kylo Ren's finger stabbed forth towards the hangar--fortunately unburnt. "What are you waiting for--he could've gotten a distress call out while he was in the Temple! _Go!!!_ " That broke their trance--as one, they ran towards the hangar. 

As soon as they arrived, Kylo noted with satisfaction that Skywalker's X-Wing was still parked in the hangar. Rage boiled to the surface at the sight of the thing...the _hero's_ fighter. He drew his saber and slashed at it, once, twice, with a snarl, desecrating the craft just as surely as Luke Skywalker had desecrated his own name on this night. That was all he allowed himself, though, for just as he'd warned his Knights, there was no time to waste.

He pointed to the second of the three emergency craft. "Take that one--I won't be long behind you."

It was only once they'd raised the ramp, engaged their engines, once they'd soared up into the night that Kylo Ren wrenched himself back into motion. He had to know--that Luke Skywalker was truly gone. He had to know if he--if there were truly no survivors.

So he turned for one last time towards the village that had once confined him, with its Temple at the center, casting his mind throughout the Force as the fires consumed it all.

**Author's Note:**

> CANON NOTE: Although the ASoE-verse does incorporate the on-screen elements of Kylo Ren's past from The Last Jedi, I do NOT follow the canon comics' origin story for the Knights of Ren, or the story of the night of Luke's betrayal; I have had this story in mind for the ASoE-verse since well before the release of both comic storylines.
> 
> AUTHOR'S NOTE: Also, though it should go without saying, this is the story of the betrayal as experienced solely by Kylo Ren himself. The "fog of war" is most definitely in play here. Please also know that _comprehending_ and _depicting_ what he does here does not mean _celebrating_ it.


End file.
